History
Silver has been known since ancient times. Silver is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, and slag heaps found in Asia Minor and on the islands of the Aegean Sea indicate that silver was being separated from lead as early as the 4th millennium BCE. The silver mines at Laurium were very rich and helped provide a currency for the economy of Ancient Athens. It involved mining the ore in underground galleries, washing the ores and smelting it to produce the metal. Elaborate washing tables still exist at the site using rain water held in cisterns and collected during the winter months.
Extraction of silver from lead ore was widespread in Roman Britain as a result of Roman mining very soon after the conquest of the first century CE.
From the mid-15th century silver began to be extracted from copper ores in massive quantities using the liquation process creating a boost to the mining and metallurgy industries of Central Europe.
Read more about this topic: Silver Mines
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)